


just a fingerprint of lipstick’s not enough

by theneverending



Category: Fifth Harmony (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Paperman (2012) Fusion, F/F, Fluff, Inspired by Disney, Magical Realism, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 16:45:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4927318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theneverending/pseuds/theneverending
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>But then, the mysterious stranger glances back at Camila from the window next to her seat, and smiles sweetly. Camila returns the favor, her stomach tingling with hope that maybe they’ll meet again.</p><p>or, it's fate in the form of paper airplanes that brings them together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	just a fingerprint of lipstick’s not enough

The weather outside is a downcast combination of dreary and freezing cold, and Camila is convinced that maybe wearing a skirt to work wasn’t the best decision she’s ever made. Then again, Camila also wasn’t planning on her dryer breaking out of the blue, and her train being late. Her coworker, Dinah, might say that it was funny how things worked out, but Camila definitely wasn’t laughing.

In fact, Camila found herself wallowing in her own misery more often than not as of late. Camila was in for quite a shock when she graduated from college and obtained her first actual job. Sure, the thought of interning for an elite fashion magazine seemed fancy enough, but Camila caught herself copying papers and fetching coffee more often than not.

The road to becoming a journalist wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Sure, the job would pay off when people started to recognize Camila by name, but currently, she was focused on how many sugar packets her boss wanted in her coffee. The answer was two and a half, by the way, and Camila thought it was freaking impossible to correctly measure that without her boss spilling it in the garbage again.

The breeze of a whirling train passing by startled Camila, and sent a chilling breeze up her exposed calves. Camila shifted uncomfortably on the platform, her left arm folded across the folder of loose papers she kept with her at all times. Camila didn’t let these papers out of her sight, because she was hopeful that one day her boss would be in distress and would need a back up article, pronto. Camila was prepared for anything across the spectrum of ‘How to Get A Man to Marry You After One Date’ to ‘Why Natural Products Improve Your Skin.” She came in clutch.

As a train that wasn’t Camila’s passed, a loose page collided with the side of Camila’s shoulder, attaching itself for a few seconds before flying off into the air once again. Following the paper ran a girl, seemingly chasing down the train as her fingers grasped the paper. Camila turned her head to watch the girl out of curiosity, watching the stranger whose face was hidden behind her own stack of papers.

Embarrassed, the girl lowered the papers, her lips crooked sideways in a seemingly apologetic manner. As the girl revealed her face, Camila’s breath hitched, and she held on to her papers a little tighter.

Waves the shade of a starless sky cascaded down the girl’s shoulders, shining against the matte fabric of her professional blazer. The girl’s thick eyebrows were furrowed as she stacked her papers once again, her effervescent eyes flicking across the top right corners of each page. Camila caught herself staring at the beauty, and decided to turn away quickly so the stranger didn’t think she was some sort of creep.

Seconds later, the stranger moved directly beside Camila, and she couldn’t help but glance over at her once again. Camila slightly moved her head to get a closer look at the girl’s bleak heels, and a stolen peek at the profile of her sloped nose. This girl was gorgeous, and if Camila weren’t unsure of herself, maybe she would approach the beauty.

Camila was so focused on straying her attention on everything but the girl that she didn’t realize one of her papers had broken loose from her stack. When Camila’s eyes gazed down at the page, it was too late, and the paper was flying right toward the girl.

With a quiet smack, the page connected with the stranger’s face. Camila brought her hand up to her dropped jaw as she stared horrified at the girl, whose face was once again covered by a piece of paper.

Camila rushed forward without thinking, extending her arm as she plucked the page from the girl’s face. The stranger squinted her eyes, her nose scrunched up cutely as the page was removed from her face. The girl opened her eyes, blinking a few times, as she transferred her attention from the paper to Camila, and then back to the paper again. Stifling out a laugh, the girl turned the page around so the non blank side was facing Camila.

Smack dab in the middle of the page, ruby red lipstick stained the page in a perfect puckered manner. Camila giggled when she saw it, her eyes closing for a split second. When she opened them again, the girl wasn’t standing in front of her anymore.

The girl was walking away from her, her ebony tresses fighting against the wind from the train. She got on it without looking back, and Camila stared on, a bit helpless as she watched the girl slip out of her fingers, leaving her only with a tainted article about ‘The Lipstick Lesbian’, ironically.

But then, the mysterious stranger glances back at Camila from the window next to her seat, and smiles sweetly. Camila returns the favor, her stomach tingling with hope that maybe they’ll meet again.

When Camila's train _finally_ arrives, she can barely take her eyes off of the page that's been marked with the girl's kiss. Camila can't help but gaze at it and silently curse herself for not saying a word to the girl, but she decides that what's done is done, and now she's left with a cute memory and a dose of heart wrenching self hatred.

At the office building, Camila solemnly finds her desk and slumps down into it, stacking her papers on her desk, allowing the small lipstick stain to stand out red in a world full of black and white. While being hypnotized by the mark, her boss approaches her desk, staring her down over wide rimmed glasses. Camila perks up, attempting to look excited to work, but her boss drops a load of paperwork on her desk, expectantly waiting for her intern to do her busy work. The boss leaves, her pantsuit slapping against her ankles as she walks away, and Camila turns her attention back to her work for the day.

A page of paper blows off of the top of the stack, and Camila thinks that gravity must get its thrills by messing with her. The paper is quick, flying toward the window, but Camila uses her catlike reflexes to catch the paper, clutching it against the windowsill. As she retrieves it, she glances out the window and exhales, but something catches her eye.

The mystery girl from the train station is standing in an office building across from hers. Camila squints her eyes, fixating on the girl as she shakes a man's hand and sits politely in a seat across from him. Camila could scream, because either destiny was wearing a giant flashing sign that was pointing her to this girl, or she had accidentally put hallucinogens in her morning coffee.

Camila made the rash decision to push the window open and flail her arms like an idiot, yelling out to try and capture the girl's attention. This task would have been much easier if Camila had the decency to have learned the girl's name, but she's still cursing herself for that one.

The girl doesn't turn Camila's way, and Camila guesses it's probably because her voice is getting lost with the wind. Sighing, Camila let her shoulders fall, and she turned off to the side to see her boss glaring at her, silently insinuating that she best sit down and resume the work she was assigned.

Sadly, Camila retires back into her seat, not taking her eyes off of the seemingly shaken girl she had met on the platform this morning. Camila holds her chin in her hands, sprouting a plan to get the girls attention. Camila snatches a piece of paper off of the top of the stack, and she professionally creases it like she used to when she was a child. After pointing the tip to give her creation good mileage and traction, Camila beholds it in front of her, admiring the white paper airplane.

While eyeing her boss to make sure she didn't get caught, Camila moved with determination to the window, pinching her thumb and forefinger around the base of the paper airplane. With precision, Camila aimed it toward the girl, squinting one eye and closing her lips around her tongue as she tossed the paper airplane, watching it fly in the air and toward the girl's window, and then - drop to the ground gracefully.

Grabbing another sheet of paper, Camila folded it the exact same way, pointing the front end of the paper airplane once again. The next toss had more focus, Camila's eyes locking right on the open space of the window as she chucked the paper airplane out with extra force. The paper airplane soared through the sky, over the beeping cars below and beneath the bleak sky. This time, the paper airplane seemed to making nice distance, and Camila braced herself as the airplane bolted straight for the window and just as she thought it would stick the landing, it tapped the brick wall a few inches away from the opening of the window.

As Camila went to take another paper off the stack, her boss came by, her thin lips creased around the edges from frowning, and her eyes narrowed to tiny slits. Camila's boss slammed the window shut, causing a last huff of breeze to shoot through the room as she glared Camila down with warning eyes.

After her killjoy boss left, Camila silently reopened the window, her only passageway to obtaining her obvious destiny. Camila folded page after page into delicate paper airplanes, sending them flying into the air and missing every single time. The few incidents where she did make it into the room, though, neither the train station girl nor her future employer seemed to notice. Camila reached back to her desk for another paper after her most recent attempt was a botch, and she knocked the empty tray off onto the floor.

The entire office was staring in her direction now, their eyes wide behind glasses and bland appearances. Dinah, Camila's only tolerable coworker, lifted her eyebrows suspiciously, inching her own stack of papers away from Camila.

Ignoring their stares, Camila turned her focus back to where her destiny was placed, and now the girl was standing, shaking the man's hand once again. Sweating, Camila wished she hadn't blocked her own shot a thousand times over, but then she remembered she had the page that started it all: the one marked with the beauty's blood red lipstick.

Camila was determined to make this her victory as she folded the paper that started this entire ordeal. Holding the paper lightly, Camila inhaled, focusing all of her attention on her last attempt to capture this girl's attention, but suddenly, the wind became her enemy once again, and swept the paper airplane right out of her hands. Camila scrambled, lunging forward and bending her stomach over the window sill as her last ditch effort literally flew right out the window. She watched the paper as it tumbled down the alleyway, floating like a feather in the wind.

The girl was saying her final goodbyes to her future employer, closing the door behind her as she smiled at the man. Camila felt like all had been lost, but then she realized that if she took off right now, she could probably end up meeting the girl downstairs. Without a second thought, Camila dropped everything and bolted out the door, knocking over a stack of one of her coworker's papers in the wreckage. Camila was putting her job on the line for this, but this was a decision that was do or die: Camila was either going to meet her soul mate or mope in her office for the rest of her life, wishing she had taken the chance when it was standing in front of her.

Camila bolted down the steel stairs of her office building, dodging the strange looks she got from receptionists and people who worked on the floors below her. Camila didn't care anymore, they could stare if they wanted to, because she was about to be reunited with the person she believed could be fate. In her typically boring life, things like this just didn't happen everyday.

Pushing through the revolving door, Camila burst out of the magazine headquarters, out of breath and probably appearing like a crazed maniac. Camila looked from side to side, her hair tumbling out of it's professional bun, and, yeah, she's convinced that she seemed utterly crazy to passer bys, but if they knew she was pursuing the possible love of her life, they would more than likely give her some leeway.

Darting across the street, Camila avoided the cars that screeched to a halt because she was intercepting traffic, and she searched once again, poking her head high to try and find the mystery girl in the crowd of people. Sighing and running her hands through her hair, Camila noticed a tiny paper plane placed neatly on top of a mailbox, and a red lipstick stain stuck out like a sign from the higher up. Camila almost shrieked in joy, snatching the paper airplane up and wanting to plant a kiss on it herself, but she didn't. Camila remembered that the possibility of finding this girl again was probably shattered, and that it would probably best to give up the ghost.

So Camila tossed the paper airplane one last time, sending it soaring through the city streets, and out of her life.

Sulking away from her despair, Camila kept her head down as she walked further away from her office building, further from her destiny. Letting out a sigh, Camila took her journey one step at a time, thirsting to be at home and away from the place she was bound to be fired from and - something smacked her on the calf, attaching to her like a warm blanket.

Looking down at her feet, Camila blinked in disbelief as she saw the desired paper airplane, the poison apple red kiss staring up at Camila, begging to be noticed.

With a grunt, Camila shook off the paper airplane, but before she knew it, about ten paper airplanes attached to her chest, followed by a dozen more, and then seemingly, a hundred. Camila furrowed her eyebrows, muttering some colorful words under her breath as she was swept away by the paper airplanes, the wind carrying her backward. People took second glances at the girl who was currently in a tornado of paper airplanes, being whirled around like a cyclone back toward her office building.

The pesky paper airplane that started this entire mess broke itself free from it's magical grasp, flying like a jet to an nondescript location.

Camila continued to be carried away by the hurricane of paper airplanes, allowing them to drag her passed her office building and to the other side of town where her train station was. Camila was convinced that either magic exists or she was going insane, because if her hypothesis was correct, her failed attempts were taking her back to the place where she left the girl with eyes brighter than any sea glass she had ever seen.

Before she knew it, the train doors were opening, and Camila was being thrust into a seat, the passengers glancing at her like she was just another odd occurrence on the train. Camila laughed to herself, because if she had seen someone whisked on to a train by magical paper airplanes, she definitely would have thought they were crazy.

The train continued on as normal, passing all of the sights that she saw everyday, but somehow, it was different this time. Camila couldn't even move her hand to scratch her nose without about a thousand paper airplanes holding her down, making damn sure she stayed exactly where she was.

Like clockwork, a second train pulled in from the opposite direction, stopping parallel to Camila's own means of transportation. As soon as the doors opened, the paper airplanes were pushing Camila's knees to bend, and they were moving her legs for her, ejecting her from the train like she was vomit.

Camila met the outdoors with blinding sunshine and the sudden drop of the paper airplanes, and - oh, the mysterious girl was standing right in front of her.

Gracefully, Camila tripped over one of the paper airplanes, not being able to take her eyes off of the girl she had met earlier. The girl was clasping onto the marked paper airplane for dear life, smiling subtly as she swiped a strand of wavy hair behind her ears.

Standing there dumbly, Camila forced herself to speak, "We can't keep meeting like this," She joked, eliciting a full grin from the girl, and god, she looked like the freaking sun itself, "I'm Camila, by the way, I want you to know this time, so, you know, we don't get swept here by paper airplanes again."

"I'm Lauren," The girl offered, and Camila felt relieved that she could actually call her something other than 'mysterious train girl' and her 'destiny', "Would you like to go grab a coffee or something, so we can talk about this somewhere a little less train station esque?" Lauren asked, her teeth chattering with nervousness and Camila wanted to kiss it away.

"Yeah, yeah, that would be great," Camila replied, beaming so bright that she thought she might cry.

Lauren returned the favor, her eyes glittering against the colorful sunlight. She glanced down at the paper, thrusting it forward to Camila, "I believe this belongs to you."

"Thanks," Camila grinned, taking it back, and holding it dear to her heart.

Now Camila had the paper that was marked with Lauren's lipstick, and she obtained the girl that had made a mark on her life. Suddenly, the world seemed a little less black and white, but rather it was in screaming color now that Camila was staring back her destiny with glimmering emerald eyes and a deep curve of scarlet red lips.

_fin._


End file.
